Hello all,

Had a interesting experience yesterday, I thought it might be worth the time to detail it and seek any input from those much more knowledgable and experienced than I with both the machine and the company.

Some background and briefly about me: I am a licensed prof engineer, private pilot w ~800 hours, experienced RC pilot, licensed A&P mechanic, and all around geek. I have significant experience with things like LION and LIPO batteries, mechanicals, RF, microprocessors, etc. but little experience with drones. Among other things I provide engineering support to a (very) large religeous based aggronomy centric farming group in the NW US that cultivates over 40,000 acres and currently owns 5 of the Phantom 2 Scout Pros (phantom 2 with range and other enhancements targeted at ag users). They brought me two of these units about a year ago which I succesfully assembled, calibrated, and flight tested which have been in service since.

What Happened: I was given a brand new never touched Phantom 2 Pro Scout that had been stored in it's original pelican case since new for about a year. I understand this unit was probably about 2 years old. I unpacked, assembled, charged and completed the compas and Futaba calibration routines as instructed by the (excellant Jason) CA support person. I flew the unit for about 8 minutes, battery levels and all looked normal on my screen, flight was as expected. Suddenly at a altitude of approx 30 feet the motors shut off and the drone dropped onto hard dirt doing significant damage (one beam bent, cam gimbal mount broken and seperated, 5g antenna conn torn off cb, at least one motor damaged, radios seperated, ribbon cable shredded, much more).

Post Mortem:  The first thing I noticed was that the battery was very hot, too hot to comfortably hold. I phone con to support indicated that the battery may have been "bad". The poly sack enclosing the battery was wrinkled and the battery had a "soft spot" that could be felt that does not exist on the other two (never used) batteries. Based on my experience with such I suspect the battery may have experienced a thermal excursion of some sort, probably lucky it did not catch fire or worse. There was nothing noticed during the charging of the battery that was out of the ordinary. I suspect the battery power dropped off dramatically and suddenly causing the drone to shut down in flight.

Decisions I need to make: Given the benefits of these drones to our agrigultural operations are they worth it? I am aware that drones crash often usually with significant financial penalties, it is the nature of the beast. But in this case the unit may have been defective? DJI will not stand behind it in any way that I am aware of yet. From a economic standpoint when the original cost is added to the economic risk factor of crashing there may not be a compelling financial model to use these? This was the first time this battery had ever been used, but they want to sell me another one for $100?

If DJI will not stand behind this, would any other mfg? If they would, a move to a new supplier might be in order?

Should I repair the drone, and if so how could I prevent a reoccurance? What does a "bad battery" mean and how could one test for that?

Was a sad day, many more thoughts and questions. The readers kind advice would be welcomed.

Thank you

This did not post to the forum?

The first point I would mention is that the aircraft was way outside the warranty period, so you should not expect DJI to foot the bill for its repair or replacement.

The next most obvious point is that the battery had presumably not beren used for a year, so it may have deteriorated during that time. Personally, I would not use a bbattery that old, as the battery is vital to the safety of the aircraft. I would have bought a new battery.
I doubt if any other supplier would have warantied a battery that old, in fact in many devices, the battery is not warrantied for as long as the remainder of the system.

Hello spkhiker, sorry for your crash.For your flight safety,I'd suggest you repair the drone.